HIFU treatment uses high frequency ultrasound energy to heat and destroy cancer cells in your prostate gland.
When high frequency sound waves are concentrated on body tissues, those tissues heat up and die. To use this as a cancer treatment, the specialist targets the area containing the cancer.
HIFU is a great advancement over other prostate cancer treatment options as this technique involves heating only the tumours with a highly focused ultrasound, will mean men can be treated without an overnight stay in hospital and avoiding the distressing side effects associated with current therapies.
A study in UK has found that focal HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound, provides the ‘perfect’ outcome of no major side effects and free of cancer 12 months after treatment, in nine out of ten cases. Traditional surgery or radiotherapy can only provide the perfect outcome in half of cases currently.
Experts have said the results are ‘very encouraging’ and were a ‘paradigm’ shift in treatment of the disease.
HIFU is now widely available as an alternative treatment option for prostate cancer and presents the following advantages: